text;

[doctor_dismemberment]

filtered from Ganondorf Dragmire 'cuz he don't need your sass

This is strange and I am not used to doing it, so you will have to settle for what you get.

I was one of the monsters last month. One of the ones in a red mask.

I attacked people.

I'm sorry.

[He's glad he decided to do this through text, because it gave him a lot of time to struggle with word choice. In the time it took him to write those 5 sentences, he laughed, grimaced, put his head in his hands, gagged, revised, and stared at the monitor blankly more times than he could count. All in all, he spent about 20 minutes typing up a message that can be read in 10 seconds.

And he still has one more thing to add, just in case the two people he's on relatively close terms with come across this post. He can't have them worried he's going soft, after all.]

filtered to Nesir Aeser and Lambdadelta

If you know what's good for you, you'll say nothing about this. Just trust me.

Comments

text;

[egotrigger]

[... He's not sure about this. He's very not sure about this. But it needs to be acknowledged, even if Hallelujah has serious doubts.]

... I'm very sorry that happened to you. I hope things are better for you now.

text;

[doctor_dismemberment]

[He'd expected complete strangers to buy his apology, at the very least. Allelujah, however, is not a complete stranger by a long shot, and one look at his name fills Richtofen's mind with images of knives and blood and pain. Those things would all be well and good in any normal situation, except it was his own blood spilling everywhere when they met.

He glares at the screen, paralyzed with absolute, gut-wrenching hatred for a few seconds, but then something dawns on him.

A smile spreads over Richtofen's lips.

Things are starting to work to his advantage already.]

They're as good as they can be, I suppose. I appreciate the concern.

[He pauses deliberately before sending his next message.]

Though it's a bit strange coming from you. I wasn't exactly kind during our last meeting.

[egotrigger]

We both know I'm not the one who should be denying someone else a second chance.

[doctor_dismemberment]

I think I might give people a little bit more reason to deny me chances like that. Heh.

[Gag him gag him gag him gag him GAG HIM. This whole thing crosses the line between "amusing" and "painful" so many times over.]

[stalemates]

hm? what's up ricky? say nothing about what to who?

video; private

[doctor_dismemberment]

[The feed cuts on. Richtofen's elbow is resting on the desk, his cheek on his fist. He looks beyond unamused.]

Fräulein.

[He can't even say anything more right now. He is so, so done with your shenanigans, girl.]

video; private

[stalemates]

[okay, okay, fine]

You don't need to tell me to keep quiet, you know.

video; private

[doctor_dismemberment]

[Say what you want, Lambda, but Richtofen is plagued by incurable paranoia. Even saying all of this in a locked feed makes him nervous.]

I would rather not have more people demanding to know if I've lost my mind!

[He ends on a shout, but it seems the spike in his anger was temporary, because he calms down after that. He pouts a little and rubs his cheek.]

Und getting slapped hurts...

[He still hasn't forgotten about having the sense slapped back into him by Nesir. Useful? Yes. Humiliating? You betcha.]

text

[morituramfides]

Did you just apologize?

[It may be text, but he was most certainly laughing behind the terminal.]

text

[doctor_dismemberment]

[Oh, shit. He was so worried about keeping that giant twat Ganon from seeing his embarrassing act that he completely forgot about the legions of other brats hell-bent on making his life miserable. And this brat is, perhaps, one of the worst.

He has to put his burning-red face in his hands for a few moments before he's able to type up a reply.]

Yes. I did.

Is there a problem with that?

text

[morituramfides]

[He takes great pride in being such a notorious pain in the ass, to you and many others!]

And an admission too? Damn, you must be having a bad day! And you're even apologizing for attacking people?

I guess the worlds really have ended.

text

[doctor_dismemberment]

Look, can you just shove it up your

Listen you little shit

I'll rip your guts out until you scream for

[No, no, none of those will do. He deletes those messages before he can send them. He takes in a deep, steadying breath and tries to zen himself out before he replies.]

Is it really that unbelievable that I would actually want to apologize?

...Don't answer that.

You're not going to believe me anyway, so shoo.

[Text - Anon]

[neverbeamemory]

[Still anon as usual because there are people who don't need to know this is him.]

How ironic.

[Pause in the text, it's quite hard to believe Richtofen is saying sorry, he's more blood lusty than Sephiroth is.]

Nice to see some sort of karma at work here.

text

[doctor_dismemberment]

[God, anons make him so angry. He wants to shake the screen and shout "Who are you?!" until someone answers, but he keeps himself as calm as possible. Trying not to let his paranoia get the best of him - did Ganon crack the filter? Is this one of his enemies? Maxis? Dempsey? - he sets out to compose a semi-coherent reply.]

It was only a matter of time, yes. I hate to say I deserve it, but... I do, don't I?

[God damnit fucking shit, he hates even implying that he deserves anything less than the world revolving around him completely. He bites down on his tongue to keep from losing his cool. This self-flagellation thing is tiring already.]

[Text - Anon]

[neverbeamemory]

[That grin at the terminal screen just gets larger. This really is almost beautiful.]

Yes, you do.

[For every time you've creeped way too close, stared and otherwise disgusted him with your presence.]

It's only a pity I didn't have the luck to encounter more of the growling type.

text

[doctor_dismemberment]

[A chill shoots down Richtofen's spine when he reads that message. Both the implication that this faceless stranger would have happily killed him and the assertion that he deserves to have bad things happen to him put him on edge. In theory, this whole thing worked out perfectly, but it's harder to deal with in practice.]

How rude, anonymous. I'm trying my best.

Did I kill you before, or something?

text;

[notayoungkitten]

Ruana certainly seemed to enjoy the chaos she caused.

text;

[doctor_dismemberment]

Of course she enjoys it. She is a rotten mess of a woman who feeds off of our misery.

text;

[notayoungkitten]

Much more of an incentive to kill her, then.

text;

[pitiedthefool]

...Did you really just apologize.

[Not even going to mention possibly maybe having fought a growling monster but, well...

Popcorn.]

text;

[doctor_dismemberment]

Ja, ja, I've been over this with Skippy Bluehair up there. Try not to have too much fun at my expense.

I know where you sleep.

[That sounds a little bit too threatening, doesn't it? He has to lighten it up somehow. Um, um...]

:)

[Nailed it.]

text;

[pitiedthefool]

[Way to go Richtofen, you're now on the same level of passive aggressive bullshit as Ruana! :'D]

I'm just surprised.

text

[catchthis]

[Nero hadn't been taking much of this seriously, but he does feel sort of bad.]

I dunno exactly what happened but forget about it. Who's to say that you won't turn into a monster again?

text

[doctor_dismemberment]

[Ahh, here's an unfamiliar name.]

I probably will, knowing this place. It wouldn't be the first time.

[He almost leaves it at that, but quickly, as an afterthought, he sends one more line.]

Are you new?

text

[catchthis]

Yep. Don't bother apologizing for now and think about it later when everything's all figured out.

I wouldn't exactly say new.

I've been in this tower before except I just can't remember any of it.